Fostering Intercultural Communicative Competence Through Reading Authentic Literary Texts in an Advanced Colombian EFL Classroom: A Constructivist Perspective

Abstract

This article describes an action research experience carried out in an advanced English as a foreign language classroom of the language program at a university in Bogotá, Colombia, in 2010. The study proposes the inclusion of authentic literary texts in the English as a foreign language classroom through the implementation of four constructivist approaches as a means to develop intercultural communicative competence. Data were collected to show how those approaches engaged learners to read authentic literary short stories, to negotiate meaning, and to develop intercultural competence. It demonstrates that integrating language and literature in English as a foreign language not only constitutes a communicative reading practice, but the opportunity to construct cultural knowledge through social interaction.

Keywords

• Authentic literary texts
• constructivist model
• dialogical approach
• inquiry-based approach
• intercultural communicative competence